VENTURA : Mental Health Panel to Discuss Slaying
A panel of mental health professionals will speak in Ventura tonight with people who live in the neighborhood where a 90-year-old woman was fatally stabbed in January, allegedly by a mentally ill man.
Organizers hope that the panel discussion will help area residents come to terms with their feelings and fears about the mentally ill since the incident, said Irene King, president of the Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Ventura County.
More than 300 flyers were distributed in neighborhoods near the Ventura County Medical Center, alliance member Lou Matthews said.
Kevin Kolodziej, described by authorities as a mentally ill drifter, is accused of stabbing Velasta Johnson in her Agnus Drive home the morning of Jan. 17, after walking away from the medical center’s intensive care unit.
“A lot of the neighbors were very concerned and frightened by the incident,” King said. “We thought if they were able to ask mental health professionals some of the questions they had, it would set their minds at ease.”
Panelists will include members of the Ventura County mental health facility’s emergency crisis team, nurses from the inpatient unit, a retired nursing supervisor and an alliance member with a mentally ill child, Matthews said.
The discussion will begin at 7 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 3290 Loma Vista Road.
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